1. Scope of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Answer the Damn Question! ("ATDQ," "we," "us," or "our") may collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect information when you visit our public website or use ATDQ accounts, packages, debate tools, podcast tools, live rooms, registration flows, spectator features, recordings, replays, AI-assisted production, avatars, voice tools, social exports, payments, and related services.
This policy applies to information processed through ATDQ. Third-party websites, payment providers, social platforms, AI providers, livestreaming providers, storage services, and other connected services may have their own privacy policies and practices.
2. Information you provide
We may collect information you provide directly, including your name, email address, username, profile details, organization, school, team, role, creator information, event information, package selections, support requests, billing inquiries, and communications with us.
When you create or participate in content, we may process questions, answers, debate materials, podcast materials, prompts, comments, reactions, votes, predictions, scores, audience signals, uploaded files, images, logos, brand settings, scripts, notes, transcripts, captions, audio, video, clips, replay links, and other content you submit or create.
3. Account, device, and usage information
We may collect or generate account identifiers, authentication status, role and permission information, package entitlements, feature credits, purchase records, event participation, room activity, feature usage, preferences, moderation actions, and operational logs.
We may also receive technical information such as IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, approximate location derived from an IP address, referring pages, pages visited, timestamps, session activity, cookie or local-storage identifiers, diagnostics, performance information, and error logs.
4. Live audio, video, recordings, and audience participation
ATDQ may support live debates, podcasts, waiting rooms, spectator experiences, recordings, replays, clips, transcripts, captions, summaries, and media exports. When a host, creator, moderator, or organization enables these features, participant audio, video, display names, comments, questions, reactions, votes, scores, and other contributions may be visible to other participants or spectators and may be included in recordings or derivative content.
ATDQ displays recording status and may require the recording operator to certify that required notice, consent, minor authorization, and content rights are in place. We may keep an audit record identifying the certifying account, time, certification version, room, and stated scope of use. This record supports platform operations and dispute review; it does not prove that a creator obtained legally sufficient permission from every person.
Hosts and organizations are responsible for providing event-specific notices, obtaining required permissions, and limiting storage and publication to the uses actually authorized. Participants should avoid sharing sensitive personal, confidential, or third-party information during public or recorded sessions.
5. Recording consent and participant choices
A package purchase is not permission to record another person. Recording requirements differ by location and context. ATDQ encourages creators to use affirmative consent from every recorded participant and to explain whether the session will be livestreamed, stored, replayed, transcribed, captioned, clipped, processed with AI, used in advertising, monetized, or published externally.
When a recording is active, participants may see an in-product notice. A participant who does not agree should stop contributing, leave the live room, and contact the host. Leaving may prevent additional collection but may not erase content already lawfully recorded or published before the request was received and processed.
6. AI-assisted processing and generated media
ATDQ may use artificial intelligence and automated tools to assist with transcription, captions, summaries, titles, show notes, clip suggestions, promotional copy, scripts, evidence review, fact-check workflows, score explanations, avatars, digital presenters, voice generation, recaps, post-shows, highlights, thumbnails, media enhancements, and related outputs.
Prompts, approved evidence, transcripts, media, brand information, and instructions may be sent to trusted AI, avatar, voice, storage, or rendering providers to create the requested output. AI output may be incomplete or inaccurate and should be reviewed before it is approved, published, or relied upon.
ATDQ is designed to preserve human review and approval controls for many generated-media workflows. The availability and exact operation of those controls may vary by feature and release stage.
7. Custom avatars, digital likenesses, voice profiles, and biometric risk
Some paid or optional features may allow a person to request a custom digital presenter, avatar, likeness, or voice profile. These workflows may require the identity owner's name, contact information, explicit consent statement, authorized uses, expiration date, consent evidence, identity-verification references, training or reference media, provider identifiers, review notes, and revocation history.
Images, recordings, face characteristics, and voice characteristics can be sensitive and may be treated as biometric or similarly protected information in some jurisdictions, particularly when used to identify a person. ATDQ may restrict a custom likeness or voice until consent is reviewed and the profile is activated. The identity owner or an authorized administrator may request that future generation be stopped.
Revocation may not remove content that was lawfully generated, published, downloaded, or distributed before the revocation request was processed. We do not authorize deceptive impersonation, non-consensual intimate content, or unauthorized identity replication.
8. Payments, packages, and paid features
When you purchase a package or paid feature, we may process transaction identifiers, product information, price, currency, payment status, refunds, cancellations, feature-credit balances, usage reservations, billing history, and related records. Payment-card information is generally entered into and processed by our payment provider rather than stored directly by ATDQ.
Purchase metadata may include the version and time of a Content Creator's recording-rights or source-material certification. We use payment and entitlement information to complete purchases, prevent duplicate fulfillment, provide access, reserve or consume feature credits, process refunds or cancellations, maintain accounting and audit records, investigate disputes, and support billing inquiries.
9. How we use information
We may use information to create and manage accounts; authenticate users; assign roles and permissions; provide packages, live rooms, debate, podcast, spectator, recording, replay, AI, media, social-export, and support features; process purchases; deliver paid outputs; communicate about the service; respond to inquiries; operate moderation and safety controls; detect misuse; troubleshoot errors; improve performance; develop new features; maintain records; and comply with legal obligations.
We may also use aggregated or de-identified information to understand platform usage, evaluate feature performance, improve workflows, and plan products, provided that the information is not used to identify you personally.
10. How information may be disclosed
We may disclose information to service providers that support hosting, databases, authentication, email, storage, livestreaming, payments, AI, avatars, voice generation, rendering, analytics, diagnostics, security, customer support, and other platform operations. These providers may process information on our behalf or under their own applicable terms.
Information may also be disclosed to event hosts, moderators, invited participants, teammates, guests, spectators, or the public when that disclosure is part of the feature you use—for example, a public profile, live room, recorded debate, replay, audience reaction, published clip, advertisement, or social export.
We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, or governmental requests; enforce our terms; investigate fraud, abuse, rights complaints, or misuse; protect the rights, safety, or property of users, ATDQ, or others; or support a business transaction such as a merger, financing, acquisition, or transfer of assets.
11. Social media and connected services
If you connect or use services such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, or other publishing platforms, ATDQ may process the account information, permissions, tokens, media, captions, descriptions, hashtags, destination links, and publishing instructions that you authorize. Connected-platform data is also governed by the applicable platform's terms and privacy policy.
ATDQ may prepare media and copy for review without automatically publishing it. Where direct publishing is offered, the user or authorized account owner is responsible for reviewing the content and maintaining the necessary account and content permissions.
12. Cookies and similar technologies
ATDQ and its service providers may use cookies, local storage, session storage, software development kits, pixels, or similar technologies to keep users signed in, preserve preferences, support security, remember workflow state, measure performance, diagnose errors, and understand how the service is used.
Your browser or device may allow you to block or delete some of these technologies. Doing so may prevent authentication, live-room access, payments, preferences, or other platform features from working correctly.
13. Data retention and deletion
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service, maintain accounts and entitlements, deliver recordings or paid outputs, support replays and archives, complete transactions, comply with legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, investigate misuse, and maintain security and operational records.
Retention periods may differ by information type, package, creator setting, event configuration, contractual requirement, provider capability, backup cycle, active complaint, and legal obligation. ATDQ may establish default deletion periods and creator-facing deletion controls as storage features mature. Creators should delete recordings and source files they no longer need and should not treat the platform as an indefinite archive unless the applicable package expressly provides that service.
Deleting an account may not immediately remove information from backups, transaction records, certification and moderation logs, legal-hold records, content shared by other users, or content already downloaded, published, or exported outside ATDQ. Backup copies are removed or overwritten according to applicable backup cycles unless preservation is required.
14. Data security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures intended to protect information from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include authentication, role-based permissions, provider access controls, secret management, encrypted connections, audit records, and operational monitoring.
No website, network, storage system, or transmission method is completely secure. You are responsible for protecting your account credentials, authentication codes, connected accounts, API keys, and devices and for notifying us if you believe your account has been compromised.
15. Children's and student privacy
ATDQ may be used by schools, debate programs, teams, families, or organizations that involve minors. A child's image, voice, video, audio, display name, account information, comments, and participation history may be personal information. A school, parent, guardian, organization, or other authorized adult may need to provide verifiable consent, supervision, notices, release forms, or permissions depending on the child's age, location, and the way the service is used.
The public website and general platform are not intended to invite children under 13 to submit personal information independently without an authorized, supervised, and legally compliant workflow. Content Creators must not use general invitation or audience tools to bypass required parent, guardian, school, or program approval. If you believe information from a child was submitted without appropriate permission, contact us so we can review and, where appropriate, restrict or delete it.
16. Rights complaints, safety reports, and preservation
Users and rights owners may contact us about privacy, copyright, likeness, impersonation, non-consensual intimate imagery, child-safety, harassment, or other content concerns. We may temporarily restrict access, preserve relevant account and audit information, request additional verification, notify the uploader when appropriate, and remove or disable content while a complaint is reviewed.
A deletion request may be delayed or limited when information must be preserved for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, a valid dispute, protection of a person, transaction records, or another lawful purpose.
17. Your choices and privacy requests
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or information about certain personal information. You may also be able to update profile information, disconnect optional integrations, change certain preferences, delete eligible creator files, or stop using optional AI, avatar, or voice features.
To submit a privacy or data request, email info@answerthedamnquestion.com or use the Contact Us page. We may need to verify your identity and authority before completing a request. Some information may be retained where required or permitted for legal, security, fraud-prevention, transaction, dispute, or operational purposes.
18. International processing
ATDQ and its providers may process or store information in the United States or other countries where the platform or its providers operate. Data-protection laws in those locations may differ from the laws where you live. Organizations using ATDQ across borders are responsible for determining whether additional notices, agreements, transfer safeguards, or participant permissions are required.
19. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as the platform, providers, legal requirements, or business practices change. We will post the updated policy on this page and revise the effective date. Material changes may also be communicated through the platform or another appropriate method.